Canadian music in the 70's to me meant Rush, Max Webster, Triumph, and The Guess Who. Like DrumEatDrum, I'm not sure if the similarities were more related to nationality or simply the times.

Interesting idea...

Some of my fave bands! Love Triumph, Rush and good ole Kim Mitchell of Max Webster. Love the song Check from the Universal Juveniles album (which I have the cd). And the song Battle Scar from that album also has a guest appearance from none other than Getty Lee. Man the 70's rocked!!!

As an outsider, looking at the list of bands I'm not really picking up any strong threads - it's a diverse list. So my guess is that there wasn't a signature Canadian sound in the 70s, except that the scene was eclectic.

Not being competitive but just as an observation, I think Aussie pub rock in the 70s had more of an identifiable thread than Canadian rock (but I might just too close to be objective).

To me 70s Oz rock was marked by big fat money beats with lots of 4 on the floor - ACDC, Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, INXS, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, The Angels, Rose Tattoo, Jimmy and the Boys, The Radiators, etc. I was always very conscious of it because I preferred trying to to flow rather than slamming on the drums and it meant my style didn't quite fit in.

I see your point, but to me these all sound like similar production styles, like drums the same, guitars certain place in the mix and so on.

All of the 'sound' of April Wine, Max Webster, Triumph, early Rush have similar timbre in their mix choices. Both BTO and Guess Who also had similar sounding records as well, and so didi Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot (even the great Jim Gordon played on a few of his).